Mystery of the Stolen Snowboard
The Mystery of the Stolen Snowboard is the 134th book in the Boxcar Children series. It was published in 2014. Summary The Aldens have been invited by Henry’s friend Clayton Hollow to a snowboarding competition held at the former mountain mining town of Hidden Hills that decides which 4 out of 5 snowboarders will get to go to an elite training camp. When they get there, they are accosted outside of the hotel by Ralph Fellows who hands them a flyer and telling them to leave. He is protesting against developer plans for the town. They want to rename the town to Majestic Mountain, build a snowboarding resort, training camp, and an airport. The hotel manager Martha and the sheriff come out to talk to Mr. Fellows after he threw paint at the models and plans for the development inside the hotel. After checking into the hotel, the Alden children meet Clayton at chairlifts before the first race which is slalom. While talking with Clayton they meet one of the other snowboarders Mercedes Moon and one of Clayton’s friends. They wish them luck and go to watch the race. While waiting for the race to start, Benny thinks he sees a yeti and spills his hot chocolate. No one else sees it and soon the race starts. After everyone has gone, they receive their scores with Mercedes in first beating Clayton by 1 second, followed by Patricia Gutierrez, Jasper Novak, and Hyun Lee. Soon after receiving their scores, they realize that Clayton’s snowboard Yellow Bessie is missing, leaving Clayton unable to compete in the second event of the competition. The Alden’s immediately begin investigating, Jessie takes notes while Henry checked for clues and Violet checks for footprints. Laura Taylor offers Clayton the use of a Burger Bonanza snowboard but he refuses as he hates the food served there and she gets angry at him. She wants to sponsor the athletes at the training camp, the athletes will wear the logo on clothes and boards, and in exchange they get free food from the restaurant. Jessie writes her name down as their first suspect, Mr. Fellow’s as their second suspect and the yeti. They find no clues from where Clayton’s snowboard was taken. The girl operating the chairlift says that it was not operating at the time it was taken. They stop for hot chocolate at the Coffee Hut while waiting for the snowboard cross, and while they are there Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Fellows get into an agreement. During the race Patricia falls while trying to pass Mercedes. She is being taken to the clinic in town, when Benny sees the yeti again. This time the others also see the yeti and they chase after it. They lose the yeti but find it footprints, which are the almost the size of both of Henry’s feet put together and lead an old mining cabin that has been repaired. There they find snowboard tracks and a brand-new thermos on the ground. The thermos has a small amount of warm water in it which melts the snow when it hits it. They find one of Mr. Fellows flyers with an advertisement for a writing competition on the back. They conclude that the cabin belongs to Mr. Fellows. As they leave the cabin, they hear a scream from the snowboarding course. Running towards the scream they find the Jasper has tripped over a tree root and injured his ankle while he and Hyun were retrieving a mitten that Patricia lost when she crashed. Bringing Jasper to the clinic they meet and talk with Patricia informing her about Jaspers injury. Benny tells her about the yeti but she is confused as she never saw any yeti she tripped over a tree root on her snowboard. Clayton tells them that he has added another move to his move the Hollow but refuses to tell the others what it is. As they leave to go to tell Grandfather they are going to Burger Bonanza with the snowboarders, they overhear Mercedes and Coach McNaught arguing. Mercedes says that she will win no matter what and throws a soaked ski cap at Coach McNaught and storms off. They discuss and eventually add Mercedes name to their list of suspects. When they arrive the hotel lobby is a mess. Coach McNaught and Mr. Fellows got into and agreement resulting in the lobby getting smashed up. They find footprints leading to the back of the hotel out the door and down the alley to a greenhouse and florist shop. They find him in the greenhouse wanting to replace the plant from Martha’s Grandmothers smashed vase. Accusing him of stealing Clayton’s snowboard and being the yeti. Mr. Fellows is confused he did not do any of that he cannot even snowboard. He is against the development but would not sabotage the snowboarders and that he was attacked by Coach McNaught, but he is confused as to why as earlier he had brought a thermos and hot water from him and was happy. Martha and the Sheriff find them and tell Mr. Fellows that he is not going to jail, he just has to stop protesting in the hotel. He says that he will clean up the mess in the hotel and leaves. They tell Grandfather that they are heading to Burger Bonanza and pick up Watch. They catch up with the snowboarders and order food. Clayton and Mrs. Taylor get into an agreement over the food again as they order. They discuss the suspects while they wait for their food. Benny remembers that Mercedes would not like to have Burger Bonanza as a sponsor either because she is a vegetarian and after talking with Mrs. Taylor about it they take her name off of the suspect list. As they leave the restaurant, they learn that Mercedes has run away, from Martha who says that she received a letter for her. They are watching the last event of the competition the half-pipe when Benny spills his hot chocolate melting the snow that it touches and his ski hat falls into the puddle soaking it. Seeing this they realize, what has happened. They tell Clayton to wait by the chairlifts and that they are going to find his snowboard. Running to the hotel they go to Mercedes room, talking to Mrs. Moon, they asked where Coach McNaught is. She asks them to find Mercedes for her and that she never has to snowboard again if she doesn’t want to. Coach McNaught is in the room next door hears this and insists that she must snowboard. Benny asks him for Clayton’s snowboard back, he insists that he does not have the snowboard, so Jessie lays the clues out in front of him. Mrs. Moon hears all of this and realizes that she has not been listening to her daughter and she insists that he give them Clayton’s snowboard. Taking the snowboard, they say they will find Mercedes when they get back. Henry remembers about the letter, opening it up, it is an invitation to a prestigious writing program in Montana. Mercedes real dream is to be a writer. They figure out that Mercedes is at the Coffee Hut working on an essay for the writing contest. They get the snowboard to Clayton but because he was not there at the start of the event he cannot compete. The crowd gets angry at this and insists that he should be allowed to go. Mercedes comes over the loudspeakers and says that she is giving up snowboarding and going to Montana for a writing program. Clayton receives her spot in the program. Clayton is allowed to do his run and debuts his new move that he named the Awesome Aldens after them. As they are packing the car up to return to Greenfield, they learn that the training program will be held in Hidden Hills after all. A deal was reached between Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Fellows. One sports program comes at a time, participants will learn how to protect the environment and using recycling bins, and the Burger Bonanza will become the Healthy Habit, serving healthy food. They pile in the car and leave to return home. Category:Boxcar Children Mysteries